Beam scales have typically been used primarily in professional applications such as doctors' offices and in hospitals for weighing people with more precision than is normally required by an individual weighing himself in the home. Accordingly, the scales normally sold and purchased for domestic use have been termed "bath scales" and typically include rather crude means for measuring the amount of displacement of a platform against a spring force to provide an indication of weight within a pound or two. More recently, the public has been interested in monitoring weight more precisely than is possible with the usual bath scale. Accordingly, there has developed a substantial domestic market for beam scales of the type usually sold for professional use.
The typical professional beam scale has been made using entirely metal parts which are fabricated with dimensional precision, resulting in very high manufacturing costs. In addition, the typical beam scale used by doctors would extend to a substantial height above the floor so that it could be easily inspected by the user to ascertain whether the beam in the scale had been brought to its level position by adjusting the various weights. This eye level height construction of the beam scale made it bulky and cumbersome to transport from one place to another. Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a beam scale having the accuracy of the presently known professional beam scales while at the same time being lower in cost and less bulky in configuration.